Triplet-state ketone

Figure 5.33 Benzophenone-4-iodoacetamide reacts with sulfhydryl-containing compounds to give thioether linkages. Subsequent photoactivation of the benzophenone residue gives a highly reactive triplet-state ketone intermediate. The energized electron can insert in active C—H or N—H bonds to give covalent crosslinks.

Figure 5.34 Benzophenone-4-maleimide can couple to thiol-containing molecules to form stable thioether bonds. Exposure of the benzophenone group to UV light causes transition to a triplet-state ketone of high reactivity for insertion into C—H or N—H bonds.

Photoinduced electron transfer (PET Scheme 6.2) is a mild and versatile method to generate radical ion pairs in solution," exploiting the substantially enhanced oxidizing or reducing power of acceptors or donors upon photoexcitation. The excited state can be quenched by electron transfer (Eq. 7) before (aromatic hydrocarbons) or after intersystem crossing to the triplet state (ketones, quinones). The resulting radical ion pairs have limited lifetimes they readily undergo intersystem ... 

In general, fewer complications are observed with (ir, ir) triplet state ketones than with either (ir, /i) ketones, quinones, or aromatic hydrocarbons. The only serious problem observed to date with these compounds is selfquenching, which, however, is readily revealed by the effect of sensitizer concentration of quantum yield. 

Irradiation of 1,3-dioxolanes in the presence of a sensitizer such as benzophenone (PhjCO), leads to the abstraction of an acetal hydrogen atom (by the triplet state ketone) to generate 1,3-dioxolanyl radicals, together with the resonance-stabilized diphenyl ketyl radical (Scheme 16). These nucleophilic 1,3-diox-olanyl radicals have been shown to add to a variety of alkenes to form adduct radicals, which can then accept a hydrogen atom from the diphenyl ketyl radical to give the desired alkylated product. The diastereoselective addition of 1,3-dioxolanyl radicals to alkenes bearing chiral auxiliaries has also recently been reported, while the photochemical alkylation of diketene with 2-undecyl-l,3-dioxolane has been utilized as a key step in the synthesis of (-)-tetrahydrolipstatin (Scheme 17). ... 

A related reaction is the oxa-di-n-methane rearrangement, where one of the C=C double bonds is replaced by a C=0 double bond. The substrates are thus /3,y-unsaturated ketones. The rearrangement proceeds from the triplet state. This oxa-variant gives access to highly strained molecules containing small rings, as has been demonstrated by irradiation of norborn-5-ene-2-one 10 ... 

Ordinary aldehydes and ketones can add to alkenes, under the influence of UV light, to give oxetanes. Quinones also react to give spirocyclic oxetanes. This reaction, called the Patemo-BUchi reaction,is similar to the photochemical dimerization of alkenes discussed at 15-61.In general, the mechanism consists of the addition of an excited state of the carbonyl compound to the ground state of the alkene. Both singlet (5i) and n,n triplet states have been shown to add to... 

The sensitizer in our experiments is benzophenone (BP) which reacts as shown in Scheme 2. UV light of 300 to 400 nm is absorbed and excites the aromatic ketone group to a singlet state which by intersystem crossing (ISC) reverts to a triplet state, abstracts a... 

In principle, the triplet state of ketones could react in either of two modes to produce the product ketone and olefin. These are via a concerted pathway or by a distinct diradical species ... 

Thus the triplet states of the two diastereomers react to yield different product distributions although this effect is far less marked for the triplet than for the singlet reaction, which is essentially stereospecific. The singlet reaction could be either concerted or due to an extremely shortlived biradical. Since the product distributions of the triple reaction of these two diastereomers are different, it is clear that cleavage must occur before complete equilibration. Thus the lifetime of the aliphatic ketone derived biradical must be considerably shorter than the corresponding biradical derived from an aryl ketone. 

The photodecarbonylation of a series of dibenzyl ketones was studied by Robbins and Eastman/63 The results of this study are presented in Table 4.5. The data in Table 4.5 indicate that the presence of a p-methyl or a p-methoxy group has little effect on the quantum yield for this reaction. p-Cyano groups, on the other hand, essentially totally eliminated the decarbonylation. Since the reaction could also be quenched (inefficiently) by benzonitrile or biphenyl, it was concluded that the decarbonylation occurs from a short-lived triplet state. The effect of the p-cyano groups then could result from internal triplet quenching. 

When Hammond and co-workers(59) found that the intersystem crossing quantum yield for aromatic ketones was unity (see Chapter 3) it was a short but very important step to realize that these compounds should be ideal triplet sensitizers. Thus one can excite the triplet state of molecules that otherwise would be formed inefficiently, if at all, by intersystem crossing. This idea resulted in a number of papers in the early 1960 s from the Hammond group on this topic. It is not possible in this short section to survey this area, but a few of the early studies are indicated by the following reactions ... 

Since the phosphorescence emission from (6) (68.8 kcal/mole) is very similar in energy and vibrational structure to benzophenone, and has a short lifetime (0.5 msec), it was proposed that the photorearrangement takes place via the triplet state. A Zimmerman-like mechanism is as follows for the formation of the cyclopropyl ketone (7) from dienone (6) ... 

In Chapter 2 we discussed a number of techniques used to study the various photophysical and photochemical processes occurring in anthracene and similar molecules. In that discussion we were primarily interested in the singlet state. In this chapter we will discuss some of the techniques available for studying the photophysical and photochemical properties of the triplet state. Most of our discussion will be directed to the photochemistry of simple ketones. 

---